I started off going west to find cellphone signal. In the Pafuri area Vodacom (wrongly) told me, ‘You have left your area, you are now on Movitel Mocambique; calls will cost you more;’ So I had to drive 40km west of Pafuri gate to be “in SA” from a Vodacom point of view. Local people all shook their heads dolefully when I asked where I could catch Vodacom signal around Pafuri. ‘You have to be MTN here,’ they all said.
The day I left Pafuri River Camp I just kept going west. When I hit the N1 highway I realised I was halfway to the Botswana border, so I decided to keep heading towards the setting sun. I’d find room at my friend Dave Hill’s friend Duncan MacWhirter’s Kaoxa Camp. National Parks are mostly full because of school holidays. When I got past Musina, guess what? Vodacom (wrongly) told me, ‘You have left your area, you are now on Orange Botswana; calls will cost you more;’ Get your act together, Vodacom! Refund me, dammit!
Kaoxa Camp is everything I remember from a stay here in 2013 – and better. There are now safari tents, a swimming pool, and the campsite (no longer a Drifters) looks even better. I had the whole place to myself, and wonderful hosts Virginia and David to look after me!
The farm is now open to the western section of Mapungubwe National Park – the fences between them have been dropped. It was amazing to drive west on the property and just keep going as the only vehicle around, all the way to the Limpopo river and the National Park camps there. I felt like the owner of the full 28 000ha.
To get to Mapungubwe east you have to drive out of Kaoxa gate on the main road and then into Mapungubwe main gate. It’s an amazing park – the more famous of the ‘two halves,’ east and west.
One morning I took a flask of coffee and drove to Duncan’s Lookout on Kaoxa. I sat on the comfy bench and scanned the mopane woodland below, looking north towards the Limpopo. Nothing to see, but plenty of birds to keep me there. A loud squeal told me there was an elephant nearby and I walked to the edge of the hill to see if I could see him. Nothing. Then he squealed again and I saw he was a distance from the hill, not as near as he’d sounded. Then I saw a second ele – they’d been right in front of me and I hadn’t seen them! Then I saw a whole herd of big and small – about twenty five of them. And then – how blind can you be!? A herd of seventy or more! There was a dry stream bed which hid them whenever they went into it, so that’s my excuse. It was a Hundred Helephunt Hideout!
Here’s the Lekker Lookout:
One night a Danish couple with two kids arrived after dark and asked where the campsite was. They had arrived at the JHB airport, picked up a 4X4 with two rooftop tents and headed for Africa. Learning about the vehicle and buying supplies had taken longer than they’d planned, hence the late arrival. They asked where the campsite was – about 2km away in the dark. I said, ‘If I Were You, I would raise your rooftop tents right here where you are, use ‘my’ kitchen and dining room with lights and wifi; cook with ‘my’ pots and use ‘my’ plates which will get washed in the morning. That way you’ll feed the kids quicker and get to bed way earlier for your long drive tomorrow.’ They were Danish and law-abiding, so they said, But we booked for the campsite. I said, ‘Sure, but I’m the laird of the manor tonight, Virginia is not here, so you could almost call me Duncan; So that’s what I would do if I were you.’ They relaxed and did the naughty – not really – African thing. Next morning they spent an hour or so exploring round the lovely site with its amazing views and left in fine fettle, I think way more relaxed than they would have been had they roughed it that night.
~~oo0oo~~